The Turquoise Queen, Pedro Urvi [e book reader android txt] 📗

thoughtful. “At the moment we know she might need Camu for something. That gives us a chance.”

Queen wants what? Camu asked Lasgol.

I’ve no idea, pal. Wish I knew.

Bad?

Let’s hope not …

Suddenly they saw a group of girls approaching, carrying baskets. They got to their feet uneasily. The girls came as far as the fireside, where the guards were standing, and left the baskets on the ground. It seemed that they were being brought food and drink. Viggo smiled at them at once and beckoned them to come closer. The girls smiled back. One or two of them gave a playful giggle, to which Viggo replied with a greeting and a small bow.

“Will you please stop flirting with turquoise savages the moment you get the slightest chance?” Ingrid snapped.

“Why would I stop doing that? They’re charming and exquisite, not like certain others …”

“Because we’re in a life-or-death situation!”

“Right now, we aren’t. Maybe in a short while,” he replied. Turning back toward the departing girls, he began to blow kisses at them.

“I’m going to kill him!”

Astrid laughed out loud. “That Viggo! He’s hopeless!”

The others smiled, and the tension they were feeling dissipated a little.

The following day they were allowed to take a short walk along the beach. They were grateful for this, even though they spent all the time closely guarded. They were able to see the natives fishing in the middle of the great salt lake in canoes, while others dived into the water and searched the sea-bed. Viggo thought that they were searching for pearls, Nilsa, that it was corals which the women would later fashion into ornaments, Astrid, that they were searching for seaweed to make into clothes. As they discussed the question, they enjoyed the landscape and managed to relax a little. Viggo tried to approach a group of girls who were swimming nearby, but the guards stopped him, and of course he was immediately scolded by Ingrid.

At noon Eicewald was allowed to join the team. Four Shamans came with the Mage, and never took their eyes off him.

“Put this on,” he said, and gave them each an empty coconut shell in which was a turquoise-green ointment of some kind.

“What is it?” Ingrid asked distrustfully.

“It’s an ointment, to protect you from the sun. The Norghanian skin is too sensitive to this sun. You’ll soon be completely burned, and it’s a most painful experience, believe me.”

“I’m beginning to experience it already,” said Gerd. His forehead and neck were red, and the skin on his arms was beginning to peel.

Nilsa showed them her own arms. “My hands are in a terrible state.”

“Put this on. It’ll protect you from the sun and stop you burning.”

“Are you sure it’s not poisoned?” Ingrid asked.

Astrid sniffed it, then tested a bit with the tip of her tongue. “Not with anything I know.”

In the end, reluctantly, they accepted the ointment. It smelt terrible and painted their limbs and faces turquoise green, leaving them looking very strange.

Viggo chuckled. “You all look disgusting.”

Astrid pointed at his own face. “We all.”

Gerd too chuckled. “Yeah, we look … I don’t know, like the cousins of these savages.”

“I think you look very nice,” Nilsa said with a laugh.

Very ugly, Camu said to Lasgol.

Thanks for being so truthful!

I truthful.

Oh, sure … don’t you need some yourself?

Skin bears. Ona too.

How strange. Our skins can’t bear this strong sun, and yet yours can?

Our skin tough. Good. Your skin very bad.

Lasgol snorted. Oh well … I guess so.

Ingrid turned to Eicewald with an inquisitorial air. “You need to tell us what happened when you were first here,” she demanded.

The Mage sighed, which was unusual in him, and nodded. He seemed prepared to tell them what had really happened, although his dark eyes always gave the impression that he was hiding something.

“I was shipwrecked in this realm. The Turquoise Savages found me on a nearby island and took me to the Queen. Uragh is no friend of foreigners, as you’ve all seen. She guards her lands and her people jealously. She does it for a perfectly good reason, because she wants to protect her people and their way of life, even though her methods might not be the most peaceful and civilized. I thought she’d get rid of me, as she’d done with others who’d come to the islands with the intention of exploring them, or conquering them. Thinking I wasn’t going to survive, I resorted to magic to defend myself. I created a protective sphere of ice, and fought against various of her warriors and a couple of her Shamans. I defeated them. Uragh was interested at once. The kind of magic I used wasn’t the kind that she or her Shamans possess. Hers is of water – of the sea, to be precise – and mine is of ice. They didn’t even know what ice was. That impressed her and stirred her curiosity. She wanted me to explain my magic to her, together with everything else I knew about other kinds of magic. Everything to do with power and its different varieties interested her greatly. She allowed me to live and stay here.”

“How good of her,” Viggo said with deliberate irony.

“Her people had suffered from attacks by pirates, slave traders, conquerors from other realms, and so on. It’s natural that she should be wary of foreigners. This place is a paradise, and the kingdoms of Tremia would set their greedy claws on it if they knew of its existence, or knew how to get here. That’s why Uragh protects it with measures that might appear drastic to us.”

“Killing those who get lost and get here by chance seems more than drastic to me,” Nilsa said.

“She doesn’t kill all foreigners.”

Ingrid raised an eyebrow. “She doesn’t?”

“There’s an island where